toddler projects

We're burning through a lot of play dough lately. The store-bought kind gets dried out pretty fast, and the homemade kind has a tendency to go bad before it gets dried out, so I've been making a batch every couple of days. The kiddo loves to roll his little cars through it, making tracks and generally scabbing it up.

We also did a bunch of finger paintings this morning. There've been a lot more temper tantrums around here lately, and, sometimes, a lot more clinginess (all of which I've been chalking up to the whole "two-year-old" thing), but there are a few things that help his whole little self just relax: WALL-E, helping me use the KitchenAid mixer, and getting messy in some fingerpaint or sand.

Today, kiddo pointed to the colors he wanted (while trying to remember their names), and I squirted little bits onto the paper for him to smear around on the paper and his face and arms. I'm counting my lucky stars; Crayola invented washable finger paint before I had a kid.


the play dough recipe we've been using lately:

Whisk 3/4 cup white flour and 3/4 cup water in a bowl. Add 4 T. table salt, 1 T cream of tartar, and 2 T vegetable oil. Heat in sauce pan, stirring continuously. When the desired consistency is reached, remove from pan onto floured surface. Knead in one package of unsweetened lemon-ade Kool Aid mix (for scent). Divide into four equal balls. Knead a couple of drops of food coloring into each ball. Store in old play dough containers. Discard when it starts to smell "off".

(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)